This story was updated at 7:45 a.m. EDT.
Two Russian cosmonauts and South Korea's
first astronaut soared into space aboard a Russian rocket Tuesday morning to
begin a two-day trek toward the International Space Station (ISS).
Russian cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko, along with South
Korea's So-yeon Yi, lifted off
aboard their Soyuz TMA-12 spacecraft at about 7:16 a.m. EDT (1116 GMT) from the
Central Asian spaceport of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where
it was late afternoon. The
spaceflyers are set to dock at the station on Thursday at 9:00 a.m. EDT
(1300 GMT).
"We're feeling fine,
everything is nominal," Volkov said as they launched into space.
Russian Mission Control congratulated the astronauts after they
reached orbit, with a special nod to Yi as her country's first spaceflyer.
"Thank you!" she replied in Russian. An excited Yi waved
to the onboard camera with a big smile on her face during the launch, which was broadcast on Russian and NASA television. Yi's family members were seen cheering her on as they watched the launch from the ground.
The current space station crew watched the launch on video from
space, where their orbital lab was over the Pacific Ocean, just west
of Pitcairn Island.
Volkov, son of famed Russian cosmonaut Alexander Volkov, became the first
second-generation spaceflyer to reach space with
the successful launch. He will serve as commander for the six-month Expedition
17 space station mission, with Kononenko as his flight engineer.
"I never thought about it, really, that
I am going to be the second generation of the space cosmonauts," Volkov said in a pre-flight
NASA interview. "I just want to do my job as best as is possible and
that's it, honestly."
Yi, 29, is the second Asian woman to fly in
space and is due to visit the orbital lab for a 10-day mission under a $25
million commercial arrangement between Russia and South Korea. She plans to
perform science experiments and educational events during
her orbital stay before returning aboard a Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft with ISS
Expedition 16 commander Peggy Whitson and flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko on April 19.
"I am hoping the people of North Korea
are happy about my flight as well," Yi, a mechanical engineer, told
reporters in Russia's cosmonaut training center in Star City before flight, the
country's Interfax News Agency reported.
Selected from a field of 36,000 applicants,
Yi was originally chosen as South Korea's backup astronaut behind artificial
intelligence expert San Ko. She moved to the
prime crew last month after Russian spaceflight officials pulled Ko from the flight due
to reading rule violations.
Volkov and Kononenko will join their third Expedition 17
crewmate, U.S. astronaut Garrett Reisman, already aboard the station when they dock
Thursday. During their tenure, the three first-time spaceflyers will help
install the new massive Japanese Kibo laboratory on the station during NASA's
STS-124 shuttle mission, oversee the departure of Europe's
cargo ship Jules Verne and perform at least one spacewalk.
"The main goal of Expedition 17 of course
is to continue station exploitation," Volkov said. "We expect that STS-124 will
bring probably the biggest module on the station, the Japanese pressurized
module, and we will take part as a team to install and work with [the]
module."
The new crew will arrive at a roughly
70-percent complete space station, and help make it even bigger when they add
its largest room, Kibo.
"It will be quite an interesting
expedition," Kononenko said in a pre-flight
NASA interview. "The reason for that is that the station is almost fully
assembled, I mean, the pressurized modules. In addition, the station will
already have the Japanese module docked to it and the European module, so it
will be quite an interesting construction there in space."
The current station crew has spent their last
days aboard the ISS preparing for their relief crew's arrival.
During the busy, six-month Expedition 16
mission, Whitson,
Malenchenko and their fellow
crewmembers completed five spacewalks, hosted three visiting shuttle missions,
and performed a slew of scientific experiments. The crewmembers helped install
the hub-like Harmony connecting node, the European Columbus laboratory, a small
Japanese storage module, and a giant Canadian robot on the space station.
While the two crews overlap this week, the
spaceflyers will share more than mission tips and scientific expertise. Yi is
planning to prepare Korean food for her U.S. and Russian crewmates and may even
sing for them on April 12, Cosmonautics Day in Russia, to celebrate the
anniversary of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's historic 1961 launch that began human
spaceflight, Interfax and the Associated Press reported.
"I hope they will like it," she
said.
NASA will broadcast the docking of Expedition
17 with the ISS live on NASA TV Thursday, April 10 beginning at 8:30 a.m. EDT
(1230 GMT). Click here for SPACE.com's
NASA TV feed and live ISS mission updates.
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